Invincible

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Invincible
Cover art Invincible #52. Art by Ryan Ottley.
Publication information
Publisher	Image Comics
First appearance	Tech Jacket #1 (November 2002)
Created by	Robert Kirkman Cory Walker
In-story information
Alter ego	Markus Sebastian "Mark" Grayson
Species	Viltrumite/Human
Place of origin	Earth
Team affiliations	The Pact Teen Team Guardians of the Globe
Abilities	Superhuman Strength, Speed, Extended life span, Endurance, Durability and Flight

Invincible (Mark Grayson) is a fictional character, an Image Comics superhero. Created by writer Robert Kirkman and artist Cory Walker, the character first appeared in Tech Jacket #1 (November 2002).

Invincible is the teenaged son of Omni-Man, an extraterrestrial superhero of the Viltrumite race, recently revealed to be more than he seems. Invincible inherited his father’s superhuman strength and ability to fly and he has sworn to protect the Earth. He has had trouble adjusting to his newfound powers and coping with the reality of his origins.

Invincible began in 2003, and was a debut title in Image's new superhero line, one reminiscent of the Golden and Silver Ages of comics, as opposed to the more modern and dark comics, such as Spawn and Savage Dragon, which Image is known for.

After several months of attention from the comics media, Invincible became the most popular and best-selling title in the Image Comics line since Spawn.^{[citation needed]} Wizard: The Comics Magazine has given the book its coveted Book of the Month award for best monthly comic.

Creators

While Robert Kirkman has been the sole writer of the series, Cory Walker and Ryan Ottley have contributed the art. Cory Walker co-created the book and provided art from #1 to #7. Ryan Ottley assumed art duties with issue #8 and has been pencilling since. Kirkman has provided back-up space for a few aspiring comic creators, most notably Benito Cereno and Nate Bellegarde.

Character biography and synopsis

Family Matters (Issues 1-4)

Markus Sebastian "Mark" Grayson is a teenage superhero who calls himself Invincible. He was a normal high school senior with a normal part-time job and otherwise normal life, except his father Nolan is the superhero Omni-Man, the most powerful superhero on the planet. At the age of 17, Mark begins to display superpowers, which come from his father being a member of the Viltrumite race, who, according to Nolan, pioneer the galaxy on a mission of benevolence and enlightenment. As Invincible, Mark begins working as a superhero, with his father acting as his mentor, and meeting other heroes. Mark worked occasionally with a superhero team called the Teen Team (consisting of Robot, Rex Splode, Dupli-Kate, and Atom Eve), from there discovering that his physics teacher has been turning his students into human bombs. He stops his teacher with the help of the heroine, Atom Eve. He also foils a plan to make an army of robots, created by the Mauler Twins. Meanwhile Omni-Man is kidnapped by aliens, taken to another dimension, but returns after what seems to be only a few days, but was actually eight months to him.

Eight Is Enough (Issues 5-8)

Invincible goes into space to fight Allen the Alien. After an initially hostile encounter, Mark discovers that Allen has actually been employed to test the strength of superheroes. Allen realizes he is on the wrong planet and leaves. Mark goes to college with his friend William, where he is attacked by a mysterious robot zombie (later revealed to be one of DA Sinclair's 'Reanimen') and in the process, William learns of his secret identity. Mark begins dating his classmate, Amber Bennet and Eve's boyfriend Rex Splode has an affair with Dupli-Kate. Meanwhile, Earth's premier superhero team, The Guardians Of The Globe, are brutally murdered by Omni-Man. Only the de-powered Black Sampson survives. At the funeral, Sampson's butler destroys the graves, jealous that somebody killed the Guardians before he did. Nobody knows that Omni-Man killed the heroes, but an investigation is launched. After the funeral, the Mauler Twins dig up the body of the Immortal.

Perfect Strangers (Issues 9-13)

The Guardians Of The Globe hold auditions for a new team. All of the Teen Team (except Atom Eve) are hired into the new team (led by Robot) by Cecil Steadman, head of the Global Defence Agency. Monster Girl and Shrinking Ray are also hired. Mark and Eve stop a team of criminals called the Lizard League from poisoning the water supply. The Mauler Twins reanimate The Immortal, the leader of the old Guardians, who fights Omni-Man. Invincible arrives to see his father rip the Immortal in half. Omni-Man then explains that the Viltrumites are actually a race of alien invaders, and he was sent to initiate a hostile takeover of Earth. His father describes everyone on the planet as meaningless and insignificant. Mark fights his father and the ensuing battle results in thousands of deaths. Just as Omni-Man is about to kill his son, he flies off into space. After Mark recovers, he is hired by Cecil Steadman as a professional super hero. Eve and Mark's friend William embark on a relationship. Mark's mother is left into a state of shock. Invincible flies into space to find that Allen the Alien has returned, warning him that his father is a Viltrumite. Mark replies that Allen is too late and that he knows and he has turned against his father. Mark says that all that is left is to finish high school.

Further

Angstrom Levy is introduced as a man who has the power to teleport between dimensions. He has a plan to assemble every version of himself from other dimensions in order to absorb all of their knowledge, seemingly to help benefit mankind. He is aided by the Mauler Twins to build the device. Just as the machine starts up, Invincible intervenes to arrest the Mauler Twins. During the ensuing fight, Angstrom, aware that Invincible's life is in peril, removes himself from the machine which causes it to explode. Only one Mauler survives, along with Invincible and Angstrom Levy. Levy, now mad, claims that the process was a success although it left him hideously disfigured. He escapes to another dimension to recuperate.

Later, when meeting his father on another world, Mark learns he has a little paternal half-brother . When a contingent of Viltrumites arrives on the planet, Mark and Nolan fight them. They lose, and Nolan is taken prisoner. As he is taken away Nolan tells Mark to read his books. The Viltrumites who take Nolan give Mark the assignment that his father had, albeit with a 100 year deadline, believing he will fulfill it due to his heritage. Mark brings his half-brother to Earth and Mark's mom agrees to raise him.

While on holiday in Africa with a smitten Eve and Amber, Mark receives a threatening phone call and rushes home to find his mother and half-brother in the clutches of Angstrom Levy. Levy uses his powers to plunge Mark through a series of dangerous alternate realities to try to kill him (it is at this point during the storyline where Invincible is teleported to the Marvel Universe and meets Spider-Man and the New Avengers in Marvel Team-Up #14). Mark is so angry that he brutally assaults Levy as they fall through various dimensions, ending with Levy in massive trauma and Mark distressed, believing himself a murderer.

Stranded in a dimension, Mark is shortly thereafter discovered by a version of the Guardians of the Globe from 15 years in the future. Atom Eve reveals that she always loved him, and tells Mark to let her present-day self know how he feels about her. Mark, now returned to present time, kisses Eve before the Guardians, Eve and Mark embark on a mission to fight more alien lifeforms, this time Martians under Sequid leadership.

Returning from space Atom Eve confronts Mark about their relationship. Mark is also assaulted by a female Viltrumite, who reminds him that he is to secure the planet. As the Viltrumite returns to her home, she "captures" a deliberately submissive Allen the Alien. His plan is to meet with Nolan. Allen soon crosses paths with Nolan and a bond is formed between them.

After a fight with Doc Seismic and his minions, Mark learns that Cecil Steadman offered D.A Sinclair a job working for the government to create reanimen soldiers. Mark confronts Cecil at the Pentagon, which predictably ends in a brawl. Mark has to engage the Guardians of the Globe for assistance, as a device planted by Cecil in Mark's ear has Mark at a disadvantage. At the end of the pow-wow, Cecil promises to leave Mark alone, and the Guardians of the Globe suffer some resignations.

Mark begins to train Oliver, whose powers grow at an accelerated rate, granting him power almost on par with Mark's. After Oliver kills the Mauler Twins in a brutal display, Cecil begins to a conversation with Oliver. Invincible intervenes, and reminds Cecil not to bother his family. While Mark tries to convince Oliver of the inherent problems of murder, it is revealed that Mark also somewhat agrees with the violent philosophy of Oliver and their father, Nolan.

Multi-Paul, Dupli-Kate's brother, is freed from prison at this stage by his old boss. Further discussions between Mark and Oliver indicate that Oliver's acquiescence to Mark's requests for more peaceful actions may only be attempts to placate Mark. On Earth Eve finally pushes Mark into consummating their relation, while in space Omni-Man is due for his execution. Allen the Alien initiates a jailbreak that empties the prison, freeing Nolan. Nolan reveals the secret that Viltrumites are near-extinct, with the pure-blooded population reduced to less than fifty individuals.

By now quite insane, Angstrom Levy plans revenge on Mark, the person he blames for his disfigurement. After having spied on Mark for a number of months, Levy initiates his plan to gather evil versions of Mark from other dimensions, and unleash them upon Mark's world. The plan fails, although Rex Splode dies, along with several of the evil Invincibles. Levy escapes to another dimension and is informed that he is now a prisoner by some of the populace of said dimension. Why he doesn't just teleport away isn't fully explained.

Mark is then meets another Viltrumite improbably called "Conquest". In a surprising twist, the two end up fighting, with the longest battle of the series so far, spanning four issues. Eve is nearly killed and it is revealed that Cecil and D.A Sinclaire are attempting to extrapolate the reanimen concept to the dead Viltrumites from Levy's attack. Eve manages to regenerate herself and aids Mark in defeating Conquest.

It is then revealed that Eve's self-regeneration seems to have damaged her control of her powers - and that Conquest was not killed, but is held prisoner, to be interrogated by Cecil.

Supporting cast

Non-superpowered

• Debbie Grayson: Mark's mother.
• Amber Justine Bennett: Mark's ex-girlfriend.
• William Francis Clockwell: Mark's roommate and best friend.
• Cecil Stedman: Government liaison and head of the clandestine Global Defense Agency.
• Donald Ferguson: Cecil's assistant, Guardian of the Globe contact, and android.
• Art Rosenbaum: Superhero tailor and family friend.
• Rick Sheridan: Mark and William's classmate at Upstate University, turned into one of the Reanimen.

Superheroes

• Omni-Man: Mark's father Nolan, former greatest super-hero of Earth.
• Oliver Grayson: Mark's alien half-brother. The result of a relationship between Nolan and a member of an alien race who have short life spans, growing at a rapidly increased rate compared to humans. Taking the sobriquet of Kid Omni-Man, he attempts to rehabilitate Omni-Man memories in the general public.
• Atom Eve: Former classmate of Mark's and member of the Teen Team. Eve was created as a result of a government experiment to create super-beings. Can manipulate all matter, although a mental block has previously stopped her from creating and manipulating living things.
• Allen the Alien: A Champion Evaluation Officer who works for the Coalition of Planets. He travels on a tight schedule and tests the skills of various powered heroes on each planet in order to determine if there is a suitable "champion" to defend that planet.
• The Guardians of the Globe
  • The Immortal: Apparently unkillable leader of the Guardians of the Globe. Currently is married to Dupli-Kate. Revealed to rule the world in the far future. Is finally killed by Invincible at his own behest. It's suggested in flashbacks that one of his past identities was in fact Abraham Lincoln. In the present storyline is alive.
  • Black Samson: Lost his powers (and with them, his Guardian status) for a while before recovering them very abruptly.
  • Robot: Former leader of the Teen Team and leader of the Guardians of the Globe until replaced by the Immortal. Not an actual robot, but a malformed human, living in life-support tank, he cloned a new human body for himself using Rex Splode's DNA with the help of the Mauler twins. Recently became romantically involved with Monster Girl.
  • Rex Splode: Former member of the Teen Team and the Guardians of the Globe. Sacrificed himself to kill a hostile alternate-dimension Invincible.
  • Dupli-Kate: Former Member of the Teen Team and the Guardians of the Globe.
  • Bulletproof: Initially turned down of membership in the Guardians of the Globe, Bulletproof did later join the team and is currently a member. (In a related note, Bulletproof was one of the proposed names for the title character before the series saw print.)
  • Shrinking Ray: Former member of the Guardians of the Globe, now dead.
  • Monster Girl: A girl who was cursed by a gypsy, now able to turn into a large troll like being with super-strength. A side effect is that with each change into Monster-girl, her normal self becomes younger physically.
  • The Shapesmith: A Martian, disguised as human Rus Livingston, who uses his metamorphic powers to change his shape. Currently a fugitive of Mars for allowing the Sequid fiasco to occur.
  • Darkwing II: Formerly Night Boy, The Original Darkwing's sidekick. He continued Darkwing's legacy but snapped and started killing criminals until Invincible apprehended him. A reformed Darkwing joined the Guardians of the Globe. He can teleport himself and others via the Shadow-verse using any shadow large enough to envelop him. Dragged one of the extra-dimensional Invincibles into the Shadow-verse and his destiny is still unclear. Presumed dead.
• Fightmaster and Drop Kick: Two time-travelling martial arts masters who stole the Declaration of Independence. From the same era as the future insane Immortal.

Enemies

• Mauler Twins: An evil scientist and his clone, whom both continuously argue as to which is the original, though secretly neither of them are sure. Recently both Mauler twins were killed by Kid Omni-Man; with no one alive to clone them it is uncertain if they will come back.
• Angstrom Levy: A disfigured genius with the ability to leap across dimensions
• The Viltrumite Empire: Invincible and Omni-Man's people.
• Titan: Titan can encase his body in super-strong, nearly invulnerable rock. Titan first appeared in Capes. Titan was a member of the Order until Mister Liu revoked his membership.
• Battle Beast: One of Machine Head's several henchman. He is later released from imprisonment on the Viltrumite Prison Warship where Allen the Alien and Omni-Man were held, and Allen the Alien used his insatiable lust for battles to coax him into helping in their jailbreak.
• The Flaxians: Aliens from another dimension, in which time passes at a dramatically slower pace.
• Machine Head: A crime boss with a robotic head.
• D.A. Sinclair: A young and reclusive scientist at Upstate University, is the creator of the "Reanimen", robotic zombies intended to be "the soldiers of the future". Was last seen working on into building reanimen using the corpses of the extra-dimensional Invincibles.
• Doc Seismic: A villain with special gauntlets that enable him to induce earthquakes.
• Rus Livingston: An astronaut accidentally left on Mars, he's been attacked and made a host of the psychic Sequids.
• The Lizard League: A group of lizard-themed terrorists, they are parodies of fictional reptile based villain groups The Serpent Society, HYDRA and Cobra. The Lizard League consisted of King Lizard, Komodo Dragon, Salamander, and Iguana; their secret headquarters lies in the Florida Everglades and bares a striking resemblance to a Cobra Terrordrome. King Lizard is the only member of the Lizard League to currently be alive.
• Furnace: A villain with a massive steam-powered iron suit armed with dual flame-throwers and jets. He is actually a man made entirely of liquid heat from which the suit earns its power.
• Magnattack: A villain for hire with the ability to apparently push metal objects away from him, hence his massive armor plated suit.
• Kursk: A Russian villain for hire who can electrify single targets at a time. He was hired by Machine Head to deal with Titan, but was quickly defeated by the Guardians of the Globe.
• Tether Tyrant: A freelance villain with a vest which houses elastic appendages which can pull and throw victims around.
• Magmaniac: A freelance villain who is part lava.
• Master Mind: A criminal with the ability to mentally control the bodies of large groups of people.
• Bi-Plane: An age-old villain who believes in using old-fashioned technology for his attacks. Dead.
• The Elephant: A "lame Rhino rip-off".
• Isotope: A character once thought to be modeled after real life comic book store owner James Sime of Isotope Comics in San Francisco, but as revealed by Robert Kirkman in the letter column of issue #67 - the resemblance "is a complete coincidence... James Sime is a friend of the book, but Ryan didn't even know what he looked like when he drew that issue."
• Giant: An eight year old boy who was pulled into another dimension where he transformed by a sorcerer into gigantic orange-red cyclops. He became a king in the other dimension until he was teleported back by one of his enemies.
• Multi-Paul: Dupli-Kate's Brother and a member of the criminal organization called the Order.
• Mister Liu: Mister Liu is an elderly Asian cyborg and high ranking member of the criminal organization called the Order. He can project his soul out of his body; which takes the form of giant oriental dragon.
• Conquest: Conquest is an elderly, battle-scarred member of the Viltrumite Empire. Currently believed to be dead, actually held as a prisoner by Cecil Steadman.

Several of Kirkman's superheroes.
Cover art by Ryan Ottley.

In 2003 and 2004, Image and Robert Kirkman published several other superhero series: Tech Jacket pencilled in a manga style by E.J. Su (cancelled at #6), the 3-issue Capes Inc. series drawn by Mark Englert and three oneshots starring Brit, the first two with artwork from Tony Moore and the third with artwork by Cliff Rathburn.

In 2007, Brit was launched as an ongoing full-color series written by Bruce Brown, with artwork by Cliff Rathburn. The series is overseen and edited by Robert Kirkman. In late 2007, a two issue mini-series starring Atom Eve was released.

Tech Jacket was first collected as a digest sized, black and white graphic novel and later reissued in regular sized, full color and a cover scheme similar to Kirkman's other trade paper backs. Capes was collected as a trade paperback in summer 2007, and the three Brit one-shots were colored by Val Staples and published as a collection in 2007 as well.

At first shown to barely coexist in the same universe, the characters have since been integrated into Invincible's book. Tech Jacket was an ongoing series that tied into Invincible #27, and the character has been seen in the background of various battles during the series. The characters from Capes have also been supporting characters seen mainly in large superhero battles Invincible participates in, and the series ran as a back-up in the Invincible book starting with #27. Brit has had an even less substantial role, appearing a couple of times in the aforementioned brawls (understandable considering that after the last book Brit was somewhat-retired). In The Astounding Wolf-Man, Art, Invincible's tailor, appeared, designing the title character's costume. Wolf-man has also appeared in Invincible #48 & 49.

Connection to Image's superhero universe

Invincible, along with Firebreather and other new Image superhero characters, debuted in an issue of The Savage Dragon, and has since appeared with several of the characters in The Pact mini-series. Robert Kirkman has written a Savage Dragon: God War mini-series and two Superpatriot mini-series, establishing the friendship between Superpatriot's wife Claire and Invincible's mother in the pages of Invincible #13 and later. The Savage Dragon connection is mostly downplayed and Invincible follows its own continuity, tied mainly with previously mentioned satellite Kirkman characters. Invincible also appeared in the fourth issue of Jay Faerber's Noble Causes, and was seen at the funeral for Captain Dynamo, father of the characters in Faerber's Dynamo 5. Similarly, Invincible #48 features cameo appearances from several Savage Dragon characters, as well as both Dynamo 5, and many of Kirkman's own creations, while an earlier issue featured a funeral for the Guardians of the Globe, at which many Image characters, including Savage Dragon and Jack Staff, were in attendance.

Invincible #60 is a "done-in-one crossover event" with characters such as Spawn and Witchblade making appearances. During the invasion of Invincible's evil counterparts from alternate dimensions we saw all Image heroes, like Spawn, Savage Dragon, Witchblade, Darkness, Firebreather or Pitt fighting invaders alongside Invincible, the Guardians of the Globe, Brit and Wolf-Man. ^[1]

Collected editions

Trade paperbacks

Each volume of Invincible trade paperback is named after a popular sitcom.

Hardcovers

Other collections

• Invincible also appeared in Marvel Team-Up Vol. 3 #14, which was collected in Marvel Team-Up Volume 3: League Of Losers ISBN 0-7851-1946-9. This story occurs "between the pages" of Invincible #33.
• In November 2006, the Official Handbook to the Invincible Universe was released. This two-issue series told the origins of all of the characters seen in the series so far, and was done in the style of the Official Handbook of the Marvel Universe, including similar covers. The series was collected into a trade paperback in November, 2007.

Adaptations

The comic has been turned into an audiovisual story by Gain Enterprises using the Bomb-xx process, and is broadcast on MTV2 and downloadable to mobile phones and from iTunes.^[2]

Cast

• Patrick Cavanaugh ... Invincible
• Mark Fountain ... Nolan Grayson
• Victoria Kelleher ... Debbie Grayson
• Wendy Allyn ... Atom Eve
• Stan Kirsch ... Robot
• Jeff Shuter ... William
• J. Anthony McCarthy ... Criminal
• Tom Ohmer ... Cecil Steadman
• Hosea Chanchez ... Mauler Twins
• Daniel Kirschner ... Criminals
• Eric Wolfgang Nelson ... Rex Splode
• Keith Stone ... Allen the Alien
• Mike Connel ... Derek
• Bill Garnet ... Art Rosenbaum
• Leslie-Anne Huff ... Dupli-Kate
• Paul Kresge ... Teen Bomb
• Cynthia Sophiea ... Mrs. Thatcher

In popular culture

• In the King of the Hill episode "Behind Closed Doors", Bobby is seen reading a comic entitled Unvincible, whose title and cover art is similar to the first issue of Invincible. Also on King Of The Hill, in the 13th season episode "Earthly Girls Are Easy," Buck Strickland plays with an Invincible action figure when planning his entrance at the benefit concert.

References

External links

• Invincible at Comicvine
• A comprehensive fan site for Invincible
• Invincible Series web site